EPEAT® Environmental Rating System Expanding
to India

February 05, 2014 12:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Green
Electronics Council today announced the expansion of the EPEAT
environmental rating system to India, where purchasers spent $9.5
billion on computing hardware alone in 2013. Manufacturers have already
begun the process of qualifying PCs and Displays, Imaging Equipment and
Televisions for India. Information on products registered in the country
will be publicly accessible in the second quarter of 2014. India will be
the 43rd country in which EPEAT registration and verification services
are available to help purchasers select products that reduce their
environmental impact.

EPEAT (“Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool”) rates
products on a lifecycle basis. The system addresses elimination of toxic
substances, use of recycled and recyclable materials, product design for
recycling, product longevity, energy efficiency, corporate performance
and packaging. Manufacturers
register their products in EPEAT on a country-by-country
basis to ensure all product and service criteria are supported and
verified for local markets.

“Indian industry and enterprise use ICT products to create new
efficiencies and sustainability benefits,” said Seema Arora, Executive
Director of the Confederation
of Indian Industry’s Centre of Excellence for Sustainability. “The
availability of EPEAT registration will enable business purchasers to
easily identify and select environmentally preferable electronics and
increase the net benefit of these activities.”

Leveraging EPEAT, Indian purchasers will be able to “green” their
purchasing and reward manufacturers for environmental initiative, as do
the national governments of the United States, France, Canada and
Australia, hundreds of healthcare, education and enterprise purchasers
around the world, and local and regional governments around the globe.

“The ICT sector in India is very concerned with the environmental
impacts of product design, manufacturing and end of life recovery,” said
Anwar Shirpurwala, Executive Director of the Manufacturers’
Information Technology Council (MAIT). “Participation in EPEAT’s
globally recognized environmental rating program will support Indian
manufacturers’ ability to reap market rewards in both internal and
external markets based on their products’ environmental performance. It
shall provide a globally accepted, transparent and effective method to
ensure greener electronics.”

“India plays a vital role in the global technology market. We are very
eager to collaborate with all Indian stakeholders to support EPEAT’s
adoption as a key environmental purchasing benchmark,” said Robert
Frisbee, CEO of the Green Electronics Council.

To qualify for EPEAT, a product must meet 23 to 33 required
environmental performance criteria
depending on the product category. Products achieve higher EPEAT ratings
by meeting up to 30 optional criteria. Rating criteria are developed in
public stakeholder consensus processes involving broad representation
from the environmental, purchasing, research, governmental and
manufacturing sectors.

Over their lifetime, the 646 million EPEAT-registered electronics
purchased globally since 2006 will deliver significant environmental
benefits compared to products not meeting EPEAT criteria, including
conserving more than 100 million megawatt hours of electricity, and
eliminating 167,000 metric tons of solid waste and nearly 400,000 metric
tons of hazardous waste.